The massive uprising that has shaken Egypt’s ruling party and riveted the world carries particular resonance for Samah Selim, a professor in the university’s Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures. Selim is a native Egyptian whose research focuses on modern Arabic Literature in Egypt and the Levant. She says that those watching the protests from afar should think in terms of simple human dignity – the dignity of the Egyptian people, which she says has been violated over and over again by the Mubarak regime. The author of “ The Novel and the Rural Imaginary in Egypt,” Selim recently spoke to Rutgers Today about Egypt.
Rutgers Today: Did the uprising come as a surprise to you?
Selim: It was a surprise in the sense of how quickly it happened, and how suddenly and dramatically it unfolded. But it wasn’t a surprise in the sense that regular Egyptians, not just the activists, but the entire spectrum of Egyptian citizens have been dreaming of this moment for many years now. For the last six years, since the 2005 election, everyone knew something had to happen. Egypt was really at a bubbling point.
Rutgers Today: What do you think is the underlying cause? It’s obvious from the news reports people are angry over government corruption, police brutality, and the lack of economic opportunity.
Selim: Those are huge reasons. But there is another really important thing that people in the U.S. must understand, and that is the dignity of the Egyptian people. Not only has this regime tyrannized and exploited its citizens, but it has also gone out of the way to insult the people publicly, in countless gestures and speeches. After the 2010 parliamentary election, (in which Hosni Mubarak’s party won control, but with widespread allegations of fraud, exclusion of opposition supporters, and outright banning of some candidates), Mubarak in his first speech to parliament said of the opposition groups: ‘Let them amuse themselves.’ That throws oil on the flames that are already there. People feel they have been insulted in their most basic sense of dignity.
Rutgers Today: Some in the U.S. have expressed alarm about who would fill the power vacuum should Mubarak step down. Is there a likelihood of an Islamist takeover?
Selim: This uprising has been entirely secular. I think that it’s pretty clear this has been a popular uprising that includes people from all walks of life. – Muslims, Christians, people who work in the public sector, people who work in the private sector. The Muslim Brotherhood has not been involved in an organizational capacity in any of the events in the last week .Now the Muslim Brotherhood has endorsed Mohamed El Baradei, which is a very interesting development.
Rutgers Today: This week, Mubarak has announced he will not seek another term in office. Do you think this will quell the protests?
Selim:I think this is just another stalling tactic
on the part of Mubarak. He knows very well that the millions of protesters
will not accept anything less than his immediate resignation, and that he
has already had plenty of time to make arrangements for such an
announcement.
Rutgers Today: The protests have created an awkward situation for the U.S., which publicly champions democracy, but has supported Mubarak for all these decades, and sees Egypt’s stability as key in any effort toward peace in the Mideast. Has the U.S. gained credibility with the Egyptian people through President Obama's urging of Mubarak not to seek a second term?
Selim: I think the U.S. is obviously moving in the right direction at this point, but
the Obama administration has to realize how serious things are at this
point, and that it needs to clearly recommend that Mubarak step down
before things get out of control.
Rutgers Today: Will this spread to other Arab nations?
Selim: It has already spread - demonstrations in Yemen, Jordan and the Palestinian occupied territories. My position is that the Arab world will never be the same again, no matter what ends up happens in Egypt. Something has changed radically since the Tunisia uprising.